Category: Press
Baldwin’s Blues for Mister Charlie Pulses With Humanity and Heartbreak—South Seattle Emerald
By Carla Bell James Baldwin was many things: a novelist, essayist, orator, a realist, a forerunner of intersectionality before it had a name, and a playwright. Perhaps his most well-known works are Notes of a Native Son, which “inaugurated Baldwin as one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting in the United States in the…
Blues for Mister Charlie Is Profoundly Good Theater in the Simplest of Settings—The Stranger
By Christopher Frizzelle James Baldwin was not a huge fan of American theater. He called it, “commercial… stale, repetitious, and timid.” But for years he had an idea that he could not get out of his head. He wanted to write a play based on the tragically short life of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old who was…
Review: A Powerful And Timely “Blues For Mister Charlie”—Seattle Gay Scene
By Michael Strangeways Summer 2017 has a fork in it now ’cause it’s DONE and it’s September which means the kidsare back in school and the stores are full of Halloween candy and local theaters are debuting 25 new productions or so this month including the return of the very interesting team at The Williams…
2 rarely performed Tennessee Williams plays on stage in Seattle—The Seattle Times
By Misha Berson ACT Theatre recently produced a Grade-A classic by Tennessee Williams, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Now two more obscure scripts by this major (and prolific) American playwright are on view locally. Though it fizzled on Broadway, there’s a molten core of tragic poetry and scathing social critique vitalizing Williams’ “Orpheus Descending”…